|
Post by Mynt on May 20, 2013 20:28:14 GMT -6
Thanks.
|
|
|
Post by Quaddy on May 20, 2013 20:45:30 GMT -6
No problemo! See? No feelings hurt.
|
|
|
Post by Aldersmaine on May 20, 2013 21:02:43 GMT -6
/crawls back from the land of dead hard drives/
|
|
|
Post by Quaddy on May 20, 2013 21:11:38 GMT -6
HEEEEEYYYYYY, Beast!
|
|
|
Post by Aldersmaine on May 21, 2013 22:18:49 GMT -6
/hugs quaddy/
|
|
|
Post by Quaddy on May 21, 2013 22:28:41 GMT -6
Woo hugs!
In case you missed it, Matt and I won third and first place, respectively, in the contest!
I'm so proud of the only Rising Star I ever bothered to take on.
|
|
|
Post by Aldersmaine on May 21, 2013 23:45:28 GMT -6
Congratulations!
|
|
|
Post by Aldersmaine on May 23, 2013 13:07:05 GMT -6
How do you guys motivate yourselves through long story work when you're writing it by yourself?
|
|
|
Post by Quaddy on May 23, 2013 13:25:56 GMT -6
I force myself to work on it once a week. Or I wait until NaNo...
|
|
|
Post by Aldersmaine on May 23, 2013 17:08:16 GMT -6
Wish i could force myself into nano mode whenever i felt like,.
|
|
|
Post by Quaddy on May 23, 2013 18:05:20 GMT -6
Me, too. I get most of my non-campfire writing done in one month out of the year. Part of me thinks I'm going to have to use NaNo to finish my steampunk Pinkerton story...
I was already considering lengthening it, as it is it. It's going to be a novella as it stands (at 10k words and not even halfway done).
|
|
|
Post by Aldersmaine on May 24, 2013 2:17:01 GMT -6
I want to double the length of my Ensam story. I have so much to add to it but I have zero motivation lately.
|
|
|
Post by Mynt on May 24, 2013 3:26:16 GMT -6
Lately I haven't had the time to get any writing done. But that should change soon~! Usually when I need to write things, I sit myself down and write for 45 minutes, then take a fifteen minute break where I do nothing that has to do with the story or the computer/journal. Then when the 15 minutes is up, sit down for another 45. Repeat. I tend to get some words down because I know I'll get a break.
It also helps to know what you're going to write about. Take at least five minutes to doodle out a rough idea on paper what you want to do/accompish in this scene or with your time. Be as general or exact as you want, but then you won't be trying to figure out where you need to go while you're trying to write.
And try being excited about what you're writing about.
That's all the advice I've got that tends to work for me when writing things that aren't campfire related. I haven't tried using them with campfires. xD
|
|
|
Post by Aldersmaine on May 24, 2013 4:20:00 GMT -6
/hugs Mynt/
I will try to work those suggestions into my own routine. cross your fingers for me lol.
|
|
|
Post by Quaddy on May 24, 2013 15:10:16 GMT -6
I guess I could have offered some real advice...
What I do is plan the living daylights out of it. Not just a sketch. I mean EVERYTHING. Everything I want to do in obnoxious detail so that it's basically like writing the story without actually writing it. In college, I would do this with my research papers, as well; I'd have every piece of evidence I wanted to use (both primary and secondary sources) written out on cards, which I would then organize in the precise order in which I wanted to use them. You don't need to use note cards, obviously, but historians like to play it old school.
The point of this is that I plan so much in advance that I literally cannot get lost or have writer's block. I know where I am going and how I want to get there, so it's just a matter of "prettifying" the story. I did it with Eve and I wrote a 115k novel. Granted, the novel reads like a prose-y version of my outline and thus needs tons of editing and fleshing out, but it's done. And I've found that it's easier to motivate yourself to EDIT than it is to get it out in the first place.
Also, I make ONE DAY a week my "I am going to edit this novel" day. Typically, that is Fridays. I almost always have them off, so I plunk myself down at my place of work (this helps with the mentality, I've found) and I edit at least one chapter in that time. Granted, this is just round one of editing and I have yet to actually begin the real work of making this novel worth publishing (which it is not right now...or, if it is, it's fit only for the Teen section and I will not have that nonsense as I haven't read Teen novels since I was eleven...unless you count Harry Potter). But I schedule myself and I am like "I *will* write during this time and I will not leave this store until I have done some sort of writing related thing" and that's it.
And then I reward myself with campfires. I have found that having campfires to work on helps me write in other things. Like exercising, you know? Once you start doing it, it's not hard to keep doing it. But when you take a break for a couple days, it's like "OMG, NOOOOOO!"
So that fact that the forum is going through a slow period right now is NOT HELPING.
|
|
|
Post by Mynt on May 24, 2013 16:58:20 GMT -6
Yesss, remember that you are showing up to work! You are your own boss so you have to be tough on yourself. Also, I think my brain is dead. I want to be writing.
|
|
|
Post by Aldersmaine on May 25, 2013 11:55:46 GMT -6
I do the note card thing too lol, I just have writers block a lot during that part lol and I'm currently trying to edit/re-write my novel writing in a whole new side of things and well yeah it ain't bloody easy lol.
|
|
|
Post by Quaddy on May 25, 2013 16:55:57 GMT -6
This might sound harsh, but you might want to pretend that what you already have written isn't even there. If you're trying to change/expand/re-write your novel, I would use what you have sparingly and begin almost as if you had nothing.
|
|
|
Post by Aldersmaine on May 25, 2013 22:26:08 GMT -6
It's not harsh. I don't like it, but it's not harsh. it's... reasonable.
|
|
|
Post by Quaddy on May 25, 2013 22:53:53 GMT -6
It sucks is what it does. Bleck. I'm afraid I might have to do it if I ever decide to expand my Jimmy/Nate stories into a novel or novels.
|
|
|
Post by Aldersmaine on May 26, 2013 4:09:26 GMT -6
We'll get through this, Quaddy. Together! lol
|
|
|
Post by Quaddy on May 26, 2013 17:02:43 GMT -6
I have to finish the short story version first, of course...
|
|
|
Post by Mynt on May 26, 2013 18:41:42 GMT -6
Yeah, I'm pretty much tossing out everything from my first draft of my novel and rewriting it from scratch. Speaking of... I think I'd like to have Tony in the rewrite... Maybe not as a squad leader, but it'd be nice to have her there. If you wouldn't mind.
|
|
|
Post by Quaddy on May 26, 2013 20:36:54 GMT -6
No problemo!
|
|
|
Post by Quaddy on May 26, 2013 20:37:14 GMT -6
Just mention me in the Dedication when you become famous.
|
|